Tuesday, December 1, 2009

I'm Back

So updates have been scarce recently. Lot's of reasons for that, but my time-table for testing TMGS is still on track. I'm working through a couple remaining issues from one of Luke's comments that required some reorganizing of a few dialogs, but progress is steady, if slow. I do think the end result will be better.

Caribbean Cruise
So my wife and I went on our first ocean-going cruise this past week. There was some good and some bad to it. Overall, I wasn't real thrilled with the lack of flexibility and the comparatively small amount of time in the countries we visited, but having the hotel essentially move with you is nice. We spent a couple days in Mexico, one in Belize, and one in Guatemala - very different from our other trips. We got to see a few Mayan ruins and zipline through some rain forests. Pictures included.

Our next trip is shaping up, and we're pretty much 100% set on spending a week on our own driving through Ireland. Should be fun with that whole left-side-of-the-road thing. Be scared, ye Irishmen and women.

So as we're going to be free-form and the itinerary is currently wide open, I'll put it out for the faithful readers who are either Irish nationals or familiar with the country. Is there anything that is considered a "must-see" in the country? This could be either a city or a specific site. Hopefully, we'll find some really great things that aren't necessarily in the guide books. We'll obviously fly in and out of Dublin, but anything else is open.

Cleopatra and Antony
One of my big reads during the cruise was Cleopatra and Antony by Diana Preston. I won't review the book here, but it was one of my selections following my viewing of the second season of Rome. It did a great job of filling in the gaps in the very fast-paced narrative of the final episodes and made several of the scenes make more sense. It also confirmed the number of small details that the TV series included that were absolutely true. (For example, Antony really did challenge Octavian to individual combat after his defeat at Actium.) I'm still going to read a few other books before I settle on my opinion of the depiction of the Egyptian court.

Overall, it was a very easy read for anyone interested in the period. In other words, it was written for the general enthusiast as opposed to a scholar.

5 comments:

Jclef said...

Welcome back - it must've been awesome floating over that canopy. See any Yuan-ti? ;)

Marc said...

I went on a 5 day trip a long while ago, combining Ireland and Scotland. I had a wonderful time, and one place that I'd recommend is Bunratty Castle, in County Clare, Ireland. I attended a dinner there, and as part of the meal we were entertained by some wonderful singers - I bought a cassette of the music, and it was worn out a few years back. I don't know if the dinner/show is still given, but the area would be wonderful to visit anyway!

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Anonymous said...

Hiya Tiberius..

Ironic with your handle you love Rome LOL.

Good book recommendation. I will try it out.

After season 1 I also went back after many years and re-read I Claudius and Claudius the God by err whats his name.

They were nice supplimental reding as well.

Take care and feel free to chat (at Bioware) if you have the time.

Jfoxtail

Tiberius209 said...

Jclef,

Yeah, but ziplining was a blast. Strange thing is I'm generally scared of heights, but once I stepped off the first platform, it wasn't so bad.

Marc,

Thanks for the recommendation. Will check it out.

jfoxtail,

My handle actually has a Roman connection. I first took it after I returned from a trip to Italy in which I had visited one of Tiberius' palaces on Capri.